Was a pretty swingy Day 1.

My starting table had 2 big fish and 3 solid younger guys.

I chipped up a little bit to like 17k starting with 15k in level 1. In level 2, I open AJs in the HJ and the BB who is a younger guy calls. I had won most of the pots against him earlier and he seemed like the type that although he was playing solid, he could definitely make some moves.

Flop comes T42r and he c/c's and I feel like he has a midpair here pretty often and think with around 100bb effective I think he is always cr'ing a big hand on the flop. The turn is a J which is the nut turncard as I would always be bluffing it which he will probably expect and call me again maybe with a mid pp and definitely with a T.

He cr's which I wasn't expecting but I thought the only credible value raising hand he can have is JT. I thought maybe he was turning some pair into a bluff or just on a pure bluff and called. The river was the 9 which wasn't the greatest river but I figured he would always bluff it if he was bluffing on the turn and again I was worried only about JT and KQ. I ended up calling and he had 87 for the ole' float oop with bare 8 high, turn the low gs draw and go wild, then get there.

His flop float is obviously awful against anyone aggressive/competent and the gross part is he probably is bluffing every river but he obviously hits his only out.

That knocked me down to like 7k or so. I chipped up to like 12k when this hand happens:

I isolate a big fish (middle aged, foreign, wearing a Party Poker shirt with the collar popped lol) with AA after he limped, I raised from the SB and he called. Comes K27r he had like 10k to start the hand I bet he calls, turn 2 I bet he calls, river T I stick the rest in expecting to get called by a K he calls but has 24s wtf so dumb.

That leaves me with 2k which was 10bbs. I grind a shortstack for a while and win a couple flips to get up to like 7k.

Our table breaks and I move to a table with Chris Ferguson. I came to the table with 6k and grinded it forever and didn't get back to a starting stack until level 7!!! Levels 8-10 were great for me.

The table at that point had Ozzy87 on my direct right with a ton of chips, Ferguson on his right with a ton of chips, young aggro guy who was playing really well on his right with a ton of chips. The guys on my left were weaker but still fairly solid with average chips.

I doubled to like 12k when I got 66 in against A5. Later I won a flip with AQ against 99 and that got me up to like 25k when the average was about 50k.

Then I got gifted a stack by the guy on my left. I opened the button with A9o he flats from SB comes AT4 with a fd. He checks I bet he INSTA jams for a decently big overbet. I figure that he never overbets or instajams 2pr+ and big aces were unlikely given preflop so I thought I was really only behind AJ and that he has a worse A or a fd really often. He turned out to have KT so I was way ahead and held.

So then I had 50k but lost a pot that was 3 to the flop against a shorty when I had KJ and he had KQ. Ozzy was the opener I flatted otb like 50bb deep effective with Ozzy the BB comes along with like 25bb. K94r Ozzy cbets I call BB ships it in and I'm getting like 3:1 and figure he has KT maybe K8 sometimes and rarely AK or better based on his quick timing. Oh well.

So then I was back down to 25k. Ferguson opens his btn Ozzy flats I had like 22bbs or something and was ready to jam a huge range with a solid image, got T6s and beat Ferguson's AJ.

Then I won a couple small pots. Then with 2 hands left in the day I busted Chris when I 3bet/called with JJ against his 99 preflop. Flop was AJJ lol.

So I ended the day with 100,700. There will be a redraw tomorrow one timeeeeeee.

Also I had dinner with Phil Laak and Bruce Buffer which was a pretty awesome time, maybe more on that later.

Craig

got 2nd in the limit shootout opening round.

went into headsup down 38k - 4k.

battled back to a slight lead.

lost a couple mega pots where he would turn 2pr or a better pair or when he puts in 2 bets on the turn with a bare 5 hi flush draw and gets there or when he backdoors a straight against a flopped tp.

brings me down to super short again.

make a few hands and battle back to a huge lead. and have him basically ai blind next hand.

qjs < k9 ok whatever still a big lead.

k2 < aq shortly after when he was still short ai pf as well. ok now he has a lil chips but blinds are huge.

then my 77 < a2, 5 bets went in preflop the last went in on the flop. wow.

then i lose KT when we get almost ai on the flop on a T65 he has j5 we put the last bet in on the turned J.

now i'm down a bit but i steal a couple blinds and bluff successfully and i'm cl again.

next hand we go ai i have Q7 he has Q5. flop 743 he says "this could be it." i lol as the 6 peels now we are like even.

big hand is the next hand i have A3cc he has Q8 we get it in pf (we only have a few bets) comes J67cc but the turn is 8x and river bricks and that's the ball game.

i think i got him ai 6 times as roughly flipping or a big favorite. in his defense he played pretty well it was just a variance fest and he ran well.

the whole round took until 3:30am and we were the 2nd to last table to finish. we played headsup for 4 hours.

KILL ME NOW.

I've decided to sell action to the ME at 1.4:1 if you can get me cash or 1.5:1 if you pay online.

http://officialpokerrankings.com/pok...CB012.html?t=2

That's my PokerStars OPR. 82% ROI over 700 tournaments with a $137 average buyin. My FTP stats (ELMO_MASK) had similar volume and average buyins with ~50% ROI before OPR got rid of FTP stats. I have a few significant cashes in live tourneys including 40th in last year's PCA for $35,000. I've played about 20 major live tourneys and a decent amount of cash games and feel like I can play live very comfortably.

I have a SNG/MTT background but have been playing predominantly cash games for the last few years. I think my edge in this tournament is quite large given my experience in MTTs and also my cash game skills which are key with such a deep structure.

I'm selling action to decrease my personal variance but I think selling with less markup would be too -EV for me and I would rather have my own action if that were the case. Feel free to ask any questions, PM is the easiest way to contact me.

EDIT: Sold-out

Craig

raise first few hands get played back at and turbomuck and have an aggro image at a fairly aggro table so far. iso the fishy guy on my right and he donks a really coordinated flop that i peel marginal on he fires turn again and i fold. with 4k at 25/50 the next hand he limps i iso him again with AKo he calls.

comes A82ss he cr's i think about shipping but just call to let him commit self on turn with draws or worse aces. turn is a low blank he bets like 600 which was small and i have 2k behind i stick the rest in he has 88 gg.

wheeeeee.

Played the $1500 shootout today. Starts 10 handed if you win your table you go on to the next round (and in the money).

In shootouts (and in 1-table SNGs in general) it is best to avoid risk and play generally tight early as people that gamble give you equity by risking going broke. In short, a 5000 chip stack 10-handed has less value than a 5000 chip stack 6 handed, even though the latter stack is shorter than the average stack at that point. With 4-8 people the play got wilder as there were a lot of 20bb stacks so there was a lot of restealing. I did a little bit of that although not a lot because the structure was slow enough that if I could get HU I would still have a good chance and don't mind playing HU with 20bb.

My wish came true and I got HU after one guy ran super hot to bust everyone else. Unfortunately I entered the HU down 40,000 to my 5,000 roughly. I still had like 17bbs though (150/300 level) and won a few small pots early and suddenly had some room. We were both playing a low variance style (some limping/minraising from the button, not much 3betting) which was great for me as I had a huge edge against him HU.

I ran decently and played great against him and eventually got 21,000 chips to his 24k. The structure was great with hour long levels and we played 150/300 and 200/400 so we played a ton of hands and I had all the momentum obviously since he was expecting a quick victory given his stack as we started HU. We played a huge pot where I crai the turn on a AJTs 8s and he had A9ss and I had Q9 and held.

That pot gave me like 42,000 to his 3,000 and by then it was 200/400. It was my button and he was short so I jammed JTo and he got KJ and held which sucked. Then next hand he limps button with 15bbs and I jammed A7s which was standard and he had A9o and held. Really sucked having him down to the ropes, getting 2 good hands in spots where I jamming ATC, somehow being dominated both times, and losing both hands. So now I'm up just 2-1, a little tilted, but still happy given the structure and my edge.

I run a bluff where he backdoored a straight but a flush came out too and I cr'd the river knowing his flop/turn line meant he couldnt have a flush and he almost wanted to fold a backdoor straight but called me. I think my line was good there since it was hard for him to have much that could call (a straight was possible but even that might fold).

So now I'm down a little to him and I turn 2pr with 96o on a Q9x 6 board and he crai the turn I snapcall he has KT with a turned flushdraw. He hits the flush on the river and that's the ballgame. If I won that pot I would have a major chiplead again and would be a huge favorite to win.

I played sick good that tourney, especially HU being down so much. I'm sure he knows how lucky he was to walk away with a win there given how it was going. Once I got a little room against him (like 10k chips to his 35k chips) I knew I had a really nice edge and a good shot to win.

It was also disappointing to see Jay and Clayton get 9th and 6th respectively. They got decent money but were really close to something major. Especially stinks for me because I had swapped 5% with Jay and would've loved to see him win 550k.

Oh well. Tomorrow is a 1500nl event and there is one Saturday as well. Those get huge fields and are pretty soft. I've had some nice runs in events so far but haven't been able to close. I have a good amount of confidence though and it's only a matter of time before it all comes together.

Craig

www.twitter.com/craigthedeac

craigthedeac = 78k
SEABEAST = 80k
BobboFitos = 75k
Clayton = 35k

Average is like 55k and it's almost ITM and restarts at 2pm PST tomorrow.

Blinds are only 600/1200.

Gooooo Team Leggo!

P.S. Jay/Rob if you want to swap 5 or 10% PM or text me before the restart.

www.twitter.com/craigthedeac

Short with 21,500 I'm guessing average is around 50k. Blinds will be 600/1200 (100) though so I'll have a solid resteal stack and hopefully can pick up a good hand.

Today started fun playing really deep with Dario at the table. He caused everyone else to play a bit looser than they seemed comfortable with. I got some chips, lost some chips, got in 55 against Dario's KK, binked the 5-ball, got some more chips, lost some chips, and hovered around 20-25k for the rest of the day.

Most of the day I was on my original table. Dario can be a bit of a headache but I didn't mind him being there. Nobody else really posed any threat, especially because the only other guys I would consider good were online MTTers who were both on my direct right. I was really happy with my table draw and chipped up pretty effectively. Eric Liu eventually got moved to my left and was playing pretty loose for a while but our table broke after about a level or two. We never played any pots because I was playing pretty tight by then as a result of image and I thought it was optimal for the table with a couple shorties to my left and an aggressive Liu.

Anyways there are like 160 people left and 63 get paid. I imagine I'll be all-in at some point during the first level so hopefully I win that one and I'll be right back in the hunt.

My twitter will be the best way to keep updated on my status:

www.twitter.com/craigthedeac

Played with Phil Ivey, Terrence Chan, arbianight, Hoyt Corkins, Robert Williamson, and a few other really tough young online guys on Day 1. Midway through Day 1 I correctly folded and showed KK preflop with only 45bbs and was shown AA. Definitely the shortest I've ever folded KK preflop by a longshot. My second table had a lot of big names and was way tougher as people were actually good at PLO which wasn't the case at the first table.

Being around great players at the second table brought out my best play and it went well and I chipped up to around 30k. Near the end of Day 1 I lost what was probably a 50k pot in PLO when I had trips < trips with a FD on 773 flushdraw board. That knocked me down to 6,000 and I ran that back up to about 17k, then lost a couple small pots near the end and I'm short with only 10k going into Day 2.

I recognized a few names at my Day 2 table including Andy Bloch. The field is pretty tough now but I am confident I won't have a table as tough as the table was towards the end of yesterday for the duration of this tournament.

I'll have like 13bbs and because all of the games are pot-limit, I can't really jam preflop like I would be doing in a NL tourney. That means I'll need to pick my spots a bit more. I can't resteal in PLO because people will be getting odds to call. I can probably still resteal in good PLH spots. I imagine the beginning of today will be me trying to hit a PLO flop and go with the hand or restealing in a good PLH spot. If I double I will have some room and be right back in contention. The average is around 30k. 99 people left and 45 pay so I need to make some things happen.

Craig

Played in their $1k tourney yesterday that started at noon. 139 entered which was less than I would have guessed but oh well. 18 paid and I got 13th for ~$2400. To be honest there weren't many interesting spots at all. The field was fairly soft but there were definitely a decent amount of solid online guys. I got some chips early by picking off a big bluff. I lost a little later when I made a really marginal river call which was incorrect. From then on, I had like 10-20bbs for most of the day. I think I played a really effective shortstack game.

One funny hand was where I squoze/restole all-in KTs with 25bbs about midway through the field after a HJ (aggro young guy) open and CO (passive/fishy) call. HJ folds and CO calls pretty quickly with T9s lol!!! I held and that was nice. I didn't really hit any flops all day but played well enough preflop to keep me afloat and into the money. With I think 24 left I open-jammed 8bbs in the HJ with T5o and a tight image and got called in 2 spots by KT and AK but the flop came 553 wheeee. At 4000-8000 (1000) I made a couple close folds with 11-12bbs that I thought were too marginal that if I could go back I would've shoved because the structure skipped 5k-10k which I didn't realize and went to 6k-12k which gave me way less FE at the next stage. My bustout hand it folded to my button and I jammed 95k at 6k-12k without looking at my cards (but I pretended to). Super standard but I ran into KQ and I wound up having J2 but didn't get there. I went out at around 1:45am which I guess is good because play was scheduled until 2:00am so I didn't have to worry about going back up there today only to bust soon after.

I'm pretty happy with my play and glad to be up a little bit to start the WSOP. I thought about playing the $1500 O8 event today but I'd rather take a day off since I started feeling a little ill towards the end of the day yesterday and it's fullring fixed with a bad structure which is just dumb. I think I was around too much smoke yesterday at Caesar's which gives me headaches and hurts my throat sometimes.

Left St. Louis around 5:30pm Sunday evening with the plan to arrive Tuesday evening (driving so I can move all my stuff out to San Diego after the WSOP). I decided to take the Northern route that goes through Colorado mostly to see the Rocky Mountains and based on a few recommendations. There was also the Colorado National Monument Park that I was planning on spending some time at but unfortunately when I was in that area it was raining so I had to pass. I didn't really feel like I had missed much though just because of all the scenery I was seeing from the road. I felt good Sunday night and ended up putting in 9 hours on the road before staying in a hotel somewhere in West Kansas. It worked out well that I drove through most of Kansas at night, because it wasn't as obvious how depressing/boring most of Kansas is.



9 hours was more than I was expecting to do on Sunday and I knew I had around 14 left. I knew I could easily do 10-12 on Monday but would I really want to stop somewhere for the night when so close to Vegas? I figured I would be too excited to get out here so I figured I'd give the whole trip a shot. Left around 9:30am and basically drove straight to Vegas with a few short breaks.

Monday was weird because I saw so many different things. Starting with the boring Kansas plains, then the beautiful Rocky Mountains, then the deserts/canyons in Utah, and finally the lights of Las Vegas. I obviously had a lot of time to do some thinking which was therapeutic. Somewhere in Colorado there was a moment of clarity when I realized I was moving on to the next stage of my life. It didn't really hit me at graduation or when saying goodbye to friends that I may not see for quite some time, but it hit me as I saw the geographical changes because I felt increasingly distant from family/friends/college life. Having finished college and by not getting the "real job" I had hoped for, I was officially a poker pro (although still planning on going into Finance in roughly a year) and had all of my belongings in my car with a lot of uncertainty ahead. My mindset going into this WSOP is so different from last year, much more focused and motivated. My confidence level is high and I'm hoping things go well.



Monday morning in Eastern Colorado I was pulled over by a policeman (he wasn't using his radar so my detector didn't go off). I was only going around 85 in a 75 and I hit the brakes when I saw him. Plus since he wasn't using his radar I was upset to see him pulling me over since it was obviously a marginal judgment call he was making. Fortunately he turned out to be the nicest cop ever and we talked a little bit about how I was moving out West (he could tell because my car was packed) having just graduated. He acknowledged that I was only going a "little" fast and that we were in the middle of nowhere but let me go with a warning which was cool. I was hoping that it was a sign that luck was on my side for the trip and that turned out to be further evidenced by my trip through the desert.

In Western Colorado (around Grand Junction) along Highway 70 headed West you eventually reach a point where you start going through desert and there are literally zero exits/restaurants/gas stations for a 3 or 4 hour period. I saw zero signs warning me of this long stretch of nothing (although I would later be told that there was one small sign that was hidden behind trees, wtf?). Needless to say, there need to be like 20 signs in good view because it's fairly dangerous. I didn't know long stretches like that even existed, seemed like something out of a movie. When I got to Grand Junction (just before starting the desert trip) I grabbed a coffee at Starbucks and decided not to get gas because I figured I'd be hungry in a couple hours and could just get gas then (I had about 2/3 of a tank left so it wasn't an issue). About 2 hours into the desert it starting becoming frighteningly obvious that there were no gas stations there. I guess that makes sense since nobody lives nearby and it has to be difficult to get gas in such hard to reach locations but clearly there will be a lot of demand for gas there and lots of people run out of gas (as was later confirmed by a gas station attendant when I finally reached civilization). I had around a quarter of a tank and no idea how much longer until I reached a gas station but I figured surely one had to be coming up soon and I had enough gas to get me there. As I got lower and lower I couldn't help but worry about running out of gas and being stuck in the middle of the desert. On top of this, there was no cell reception so I couldn't even call for help! I had visions of vultures eating me and/or mutants from The Hills Have Eyes (a terrible movie) coming to attack me.



As my gas got lower I was checking my meter on my car which estimates how many more miles I could go before running out of gas. At one point it said 40 more miles but I saw an exit approaching and was thankful. When I got off at the exit, the sign pointing to the gas station was 25 miles off of the highway in the opposite direction that I wanted to travel. I didn't want to gamble but also didn't want to lose like 45 minutes going there and back. So I looked on my GPS to find nearby stations and saw that there was a different exit ~30 miles away off of the highway in the direction I needed to go. So I crossed my fingers and got back on the highway. What I didn't realize was that my car's estimates are heavily dependent on if you're traveling up/down hill since your car uses more/less gas to travel a given distance than it was expecting. Given that I was going through canyons and such I was going up and down a lot and I started driving up for a long period of time and saw my mileage estimate drop very fast to the point that I had about 25 miles left on my tank with about 25 miles to this gas station that I was now basically stuck having to go for. Fortunately I got downhill for most of the way to this exit and made it to the station but with literally like 10 miles left on my tank. I'm so lucky that I didn't leave Grand Junction with even a little less gas.

I never in my life would have expected to be so happy to see a sketchy Utah town in the middle of nowhere inhabited with crazy polygamist Mormons. I was relieved but still furious that somehow there weren't multiple clear warning signs of the lack of gas that almost left me stranded. Also, here's a business idea for those crazy Mormons... open a gas station in the middle of the desert along this highway and charge a ton. I promise you it will be profitable. Even if it's too hard to have a major gas station out there, open up a shack on the side of the road and sell emergency gas gallons for $20/gallon. You can have one of your 10 wives or 40 kids driving back and forth from town filling them up and bringing them back to the shack to sell. I apologize if this somehow offends readers, but if you're a polygamist Momon in a cult in the middle of a desert in Utah you probably shouldn't be reading a blog about poker anyways....